Portable Recording Booth..

E

elove

New member
Hello.. can you all give me some information on portable sound booths? How good are they, which are the best, where to purchase, and the best prices?? I heard that they had some that you can easily assemble and unassemble and take with you. Let me know...thanks
 
whisper room is one.

The other option would be to build your own. If your intersted in doing this, reply here and we'll give you all the details, and we can talk more about what you are trying to do.
 
Isolation Booth

I would be VERY interested in details for constructing your own isolation booths. Matter of fact, in September I have a couple of contractors coming out to help turn my finished basement into a fully funtional studio with isolation booths. Only problem, I'm on a budget of about 6-7 thousand dollars. I'd love to build at least one of the rooms myself if at all possible. Thanks.
 
is it a room, or does it need to be portable. Does it need to be soundproofed, or just acoustically correct? ie(no reflections, or reverb, or bass, etc.) Soundproofing will require massive construction, and you cant take it with you. Acoustic Treatment is different on the other hand.
 
Well I figured that I would not be able to have it completely soundproofed. The reason that I was looking for a portable booth is because this is rehearsal space that I am renting. So its not a room that I own. I dont want to put alot of money into a rehearsal space, and end of moving and having to leave everything. I really want my artist to be able to rehearse and work on their vocals in a booth that would block out majority of the outside noise. Let me know....
 
As for me, I have more than one room. (sorry I didn't specify) I have a "bedroom sized" room being converted into my control room. Then, off to the side of that room I have a walk in closet that will be converted into my main isolation booth. In front of my control room is my "living room" which will be the studio room. I am attempting to sound proof at least the isolation room for now. (Later when I have more money, I'll sound proof the wall seperating my studio and control room) I am also attempting to "liven" up the studio room for better acoustics. I have a rather nice baby grand piano as well as other acoustic instruments like drums and guitars, so it's important to change that room's acoustics. (right now its very dead) The point being, I'd also love to add ANOTHER smaller isolation "booth" inside the actual studio room. (that's the only other place I have room to add one) This "booth's" purpose would be to isolate a second guitar amplifier for instance. First off...is it even possible to get a decent sound micing an amp in such a condition? Second...if so, do you know how to build something like this? (i.e. what would be used to minimize sound reflection within such a small isolation box) Thanks for all your time if you can help me.
 
elove- your pretty much out of luck. Your best bet would be to build some plywood walls with hinges so I can be folded up. Wont sound proof anything, but if you cover them with owens corning 703 rigid fiberglass insulation it should help acoustically.
 
hubba-
soundproofing the closet will be hard, because you will be working around existing walls. I would suggest adding a room in the corner of your living room. The key were will be to build a room within a room. This is called isolation. The idea is to have your room floating on air. Obviously, we can decouple (disconnect) all four walls and the ceiling from your existing structure, but the floor on the other hand is a problem. If you get sound vibrations into your floor you are pretty much screwed. This is why you need to isolate your booth. Most people float them on neoprene pucks or strips. This absorbs most of the vibrations your booth will give off when soundwaves hit the walls, and keep them out of the floor.

as for the room. there are some important things
1. Mass, Air, Mass......................When constructing your walls, keep in mind that you only want two layers of mass total on your wall. For example, two layers of drywall on top of each other counts as one layer of mass (also known as a leaf). Next would go the studs, which are not mass, so that empty space between counts as air. This is your air space that you can only have one of. It is very important for this air space to be as tight as possible, which means that there are no air gaps from one side of the wall to the other. After this airspace, there is another layer or two of drywall, counting as your next layer. This makes a MASS AIR MASS wall. Keep this rule in mind when designing your wall.

2. Airtight. As I said before, you will need to make it airtight as possible. Any where air can get thru so can sound. This means all electrical outlets and doors and windows must be sealed well with acoustical caulk. There should be no flanking of air into the next room.

3. Mass. On each leaf, you want as much mass as you can get. Most people use two or even three layers of drywall on each side. This will give you a hefty ammount of soundproofing, assuming everything else is done right. One important thing to keep in mind. Both of your layers should not be the same thickness. For example,, insted of using two layers of 1/2 inch drywall on both sides, mabye only do that on one side, and then a layer of 1/2 and 3/8 on the other. This will keep from resonant frequencies from getting thru the walls.

4. Windows and doors. You may not need a window, but will obviously need a door. Two layers of thick laminated safety glass, with an airspace between. Again, mass air mass on the window. The door needs to be sealed once it is shut, so look into a drop seal door kit. Basically, once the door is shut, it will put an airtight stopper in the little gap at the bottom. You also need to weatherstrip around the entire door, to ensure that nothing gets thru the crack. You need a good, solid core door, nice and thick and heavy. This will probably be your weakest link in the room.

5. Caulking. CAULK EVERYTHING. This includes electrical boxes, seams in the drywall, corners, where the drywall meets the floor, everything. It should be like a ziplock bag in there. Windows, door frames, etc, all need to have a generous ammount of acoustical rated caulk to them.




there a lot more to go, but this will give you an idea, post back with any more questions
 
which point were you pointing out in that thread rick? The fact that caulk may break your walls down over time, or the possible safety problem?
 
Wow...thanks a sh*t load notbradsohner for those details. So you're saying that even if I put up "mass-air-mass" walls around my closet, sound will still travel through the floor? Keep in mind, this is a basement, nobody is beneath me. Still though, is this why you said I need to build a floating floor? Also about raising the floors. As I record bands, often times I run into drummers who build themselves a small elevated stage for their drum set. It's only like 5 inches off the ground and made of ply wood... But for some reason, those drum sets seem to record better. Do you think this could be influenced by an elevated floor as well?

I'm not sure if I was clear on what my current situation is, so here is a picture of my layout.

http://www.unrestrainedstudios.cjb.net/

In a few months, I will have about 4000 bucks to work with when the first contractor comes out. That's my my budget for parts only. The "studio" and "control" rooms are carpeted right now. But that can all change. Do you have any further advice now that I am more clear? Also, with a limited budget of 4000 dollars, where should I focus on spending it first?

-Thanks very much again.
 
a basement is an even bigger problem. You are sitting ontop of a concrete slab, which will be hard to isolate. However, yes you will need to float the floor. I would probably suggest adding a smaller room in the actual big live performance room. The closet will be hard becasue you already have existing walls. Remeber....you want as much airspace as possible.

with the drums........yes, they absolutley sound better. What those platforms do is decouple the drums from the floor, so that the vibrations wont get into your structure. When you are on a riser, you are hearing pure drum sounds, and nothing else. Again, its like the drums are sitting on air. (not in contact with the room) Make sure these platforms have something underneath them. You want to have something soft what will absorb vibrations. Neoprene will probably be the best. Shouldnt be hard to find.

as for the floors, a hard floor will give you a better acoustic environment. Carpet only absorbs high frequencies, and doesnt absorb bass well at all. This leaves you with a boomy room with no high end frequencys. A hard floor will reflect all that, so that you can have them absorbed by acoustic panels on the walls/ceiling, etc.

another thing I though of..............in this ceiling, do you have bare joists to work with, or has the ceiling been drywalled. Empty joists would be the best for acoustics. Let my know and ill elaborate on what to do with the ceiling.
 
Thanks again notbradsohner,

Actually...the basement has already been completely finished. (as an apartment) So the small kitchen, bathroom, and hallways all already have tile. The living areas have a REAL THICK carpet. And all the walls are certainly dry walled and painted. Everything was like that when I moved in. Now I'm trying to convert it.

Also, in reference to livining up my studio room's acoustics. Somebody gave me a suggestion to tile the floor just in front of the drum set instead of buying expensive hardword floor for the ENTIRE room. (seeing as how the whole place is already carpeted. Also, I'd be building that small stage for the drum set like we talked about earlier. This would probably minimize most of the need to pull up the whole floor and lay down very expensive hard wood floors in place) That would save a lot of money...and like most, I'm on a small budget. Any thoughts pertaining to that?

Also, I need a little info on doors and their frames. I've talked to my contractor, and we think that putting 2 walls up with a door on each side would be within my price-range. (like you said, mass - air - mass) However, there's various ways I can go about setting up a door and its frame. Since I'm going cheap, do you think that a couple of solid wood doors on each side of the double sided wall be adequete? I know it wouldn't be as good as some other set ups...but is it worth it to spend an extra 800 bucks on slightly higher quality doors? (I'll need about 4 doors. 2 entrances, with 2 doors for each entrance) Furthermore, my contractor was wondering why it isn't better to construct a (mass - insulation - mass) wall instead? Meaning, building two walls, but rather than having an air gap, insulate that air gap. So just to be clear, when you say mass - air - mass, do you mean that the first wall constructed is insulated. Then an air gap. And then the second wall is also insulated. But in the end, there is NOT supposed to be any insulation in between the two walls? (I'll have them about 6 inches apart)

Lastly, my contractor also suggested that within the isolation room, it would be cheaper to acoustically treat the walls with the foam that they put underneath carpets. Do you know anything about this type of foam? He said it's a LOT cheaper, however, I'm wondering whether it affects the same frequencies.

Once again, thankyou for your knowledge.
 
I forgot to make one thing clear. That walk in closet that exists right now...the walls on it are absolutely nothing. lol It's just some sheet rock. It's the only place down there that wasn't completely finished. So in referance to my budget, and to constructing walls, think of that area as having to start from scratch basically.

I think this is the last question-

I saw another post where a guy is thinking of using 2 sets of sliding glass windows instead of building two walls and 2 doors, ect. That would look great seeing as how the viewing area would be completely open. Do you think that I could get away with this to save some money? (maybe, only on one of the rooms)
 
if you dont have the budget for hard floors, dont worry. Addig a refelctive floor in some parts wil certainly help, especially to put drums on. It will most definatley be helpful.

insulation is considered air. You can add insulation there. Since it is not mass, and wont hardly stop any sound, it is considered air. In fact, insulation would probably be better to put in. It will dampen the vibrations of the drwall if it is up agains it.

If you are going to do two doors, which would be best, you need to make sure they are both solid doors. If they are not, then each door is consiered a mass air mass layer, so you would end up with 4 layers of mass if you used two hollow doors. Definatley a no no.

just to clear something up, you are not building two walls. when I say mass air mass, it is constructed just like a regular wall, but has two layers of drywall on top of each other, and uses two different rows of studs. see the drawings here.

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html
you will most likely be doing the last drawing, with two completely different rooms. Staggered studs is also an option, but that would eliminate the use of a floating floor.

Many people use sliding patio doors as a wall. It will not do as good as a job soudnproofing as a wall, but it certainly makes things easier when recording. I would probably not do it between the studio and live room, but it is certainly an option in the walk in closet. This woudl make it much easier to communicate with the vocalist or performer, as opposed to a door with a window.
 
Here is my understanding of things.

The typical whisper room kind of booth is made of 3/4 inch MDF. The tricky detail are the corners, which are built up of layers of MDF in order to have a groove in which the wall panels slide tightly into. The deluxe booths have two layers of MDF with an air gap. The corners are much more complex and have two grooves. Ideally the air gap between the panels has some sort of fiberglass/mineral wool filling so that it does not itself become a resonant space. The doors themselves will need good seals and the interior will need some sort of absorbtive covering so that it does not sound like being in a wood box.

The 'portability' of such a unit is debatable. Yes it can be disassembled, but it takes at least two people and weighs several hundred pounds.

It will also not be the kind of isolation booth where somebody could be playing a drumset outside and not have it be picked up on the track. Ordinary environmental sounds and normal conversation might be adaquately blocked, but not much more. And of course you will be able to get a really dead space that you might not have been easlily able to do elsewise.
 
Thankyou very much both of you... I'll take everything into consideration as well as continue researching. Turns out I've decided to wait and do this around Febuary instead of within the next couple months. I'd like to figure out exactly what's best for my budget. Peace
 
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